THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 157 



EUDRYAS ST^. JOHANNIS REDIVIVUS. 



BY A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, A. M., HILDESHEIM, GERMANY. 



Readers of the Canadian Entomologist will recall the controversy 

 between Prof. Smith and myself as to the species described by Walker as 

 Eudryas Stce. Johatmis, the type of which was examined in 1867 by 

 Grote & Robinson, and pronounced a distinct species allied to grata. I 

 had supposed the insect owed its name to the St. John's River, Florida, 

 but, according to Mr. Smith (C. E., XXIV., 133), the type bore a label 

 that it was taken on a church door in England. Mr. Smith, relying on 

 the label, invented the theory that : " in some way the pupa of the insect 

 was transported to England, and through the vicissitudes encountered an 

 aberration was produced." This writer has " no hesitation in referring the 

 species as a suffused aberrant grata'' There is 710 band on the hind 

 wings, but, nevertheless, it is set down as a " suffused" specimen oi grata, 

 which always, so far as known, has a band ! For my answer to this, see 

 my paper. Can. Ent., XXV., 320, where, aided by Mr. Tutt's memoranda 

 as to the given English locality on the label, I discussed the/rt? and con. 

 of the above theory. Now I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. Schaus, 

 that Eudryas Stx. Johannis has been re-discovered in Mexico. My kind 

 correspondent writes : '' It will interest you to know that I have recently 

 seen several specimens of Eudryas Stce. Johannis, Walk., from Mexico ; 

 they were sent to Mr. Druce by a native who is now collecting." Thus 

 the theory of the " vicissitudes of the voyage " vanishes ; the specific 

 validity of Stce. Johaimis asserted by us in 1868, before Mr. Smith was 

 (entomologically speaking) born, is vindicated. But more than this : the 

 sequel shows that, instead of adopting the more credible theory that 

 Walker's "type" had in some way been provided with a label belonging 

 to a different specimen, Mr. Smith thought it " probable that in some way 

 the pupa of the insect was transported to England." Having pinned his 

 faith to the label, Mr. Smith then constructed the theory of '^ suffusion " to 

 account for the differences, and then invented the " vicissitudes of the 

 voyage" to account for the "suffusion." I think it is now plain that 

 sufficient proof is offered that Mr. Smith blindly accepts a label, and that 

 this throws light upon his work in his recent Catalogue, where he has 

 accepted whatever Mr. Butler showed him as being Walker's " types " ; 

 whereas the fact is, that Walker did not label his "types " as such, and 

 the specimens now so designated have been shifted and sorted out by Mr. 

 Butler, I have offered evidence that the specimens now shown as the 



